1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to providing help content for the user of a computer-based application, especially for providing content tailored for the help access context and the characteristics of the specific user.
2. Description of the Related Art
Help files and electronic documentation are used extensively for complex computer-based applications. Help content provided in this format is highly desirable because it makes the content immediately available to the user. Presently available help resources are referenced absolutely—for example the user may highlight a keyword and the help application looks up the content for that keyword, and provides the same information to the user each time. Further, there is no consideration for the particular user within current help file systems.
While current techniques for building and accessing help content are effective, they are labor intensive. Further, the absolute referencing limits the utility of the help content. For example, there may be a penumbra of help resources around a help topic that a user requests help with, but the user will be given the same content each time. Therefore, either useful information must be left out, or the user must be given all of the relevant help content. If the information is left out, the user is left to search through hyperlinks within the help files, if any, or to search through the index, hoping to find the correct link to give them the needed information. The help content provide under current systems could be even more useful if the help file system could be built to consider the current user.
Under the current technology, updating or repeating information causes inefficiencies. For example, if there are several elements of information that must be included to provide a user with full information for a topic, then it is likely that some of those elements are also used elsewhere within the help system. If a shared element is updated at some point, a programmer will have to go find and update each element separately. If that element is added to a new help topic, it must be added manually.
The described limitations of the current technologies could be overcome if the help content could be stripped down to its most basic elements, and those elements could be referenced and updated individually. The help content could be stripped down in this manner if there existed a technology to ensure that the user still received all of the help resources from the penumbra of help resources around each topic. As a help resource selection enhancement, the most basic and relevant resources from the penumbra for a given help topic might be given to the user first, and as the knowledge of the user grew, then more subtle help resources could be given to the user.
Other limitations of the current technology could be overcome if the help content could consider the characteristics of the user. One enhancement would be if the help system simply learned directly from interaction with the user—for example if the user accesses “A” 100 times, then perhaps the user does not need to look at “A” any longer. An even more powerful enhancement would be if the help system could directly access external information about the user—for example it might be relevant to the help content that should be provided that the user is a C++ programmer with 20 years experience, and that information might be somewhere in a database accessible to the help system.
From the foregoing discussion, it should be apparent that a need exists for an apparatus and method that allows help resources to be parsed down to the most basic elements while ensuring the user has all of the information available. Beneficially, such an apparatus and method would allow the help system to learn about the user and to access external information about the user to provide even more specifically tailored help content.